Monday, November 18, 2013

Day 18: How is Life Like Crop Land?

Another strange title, I know! Finally found my week-lost list of planned topics for this blog (now the last few make more sense, right?)!

This is another, "Where is he going with this??..." piece. I planned it that way! Human life can be quite simply compare to a field if you really think about it. It is even more so when you're younger and going to school.

Think about life and its cyclic patterns. They're similar, but different. Start with springtime, which is comparable to fall in the human's life. In the spring, you burn down (or till if you're into that) the current weeds that grew in your "off season" (a.k.a. summer for students). Then you plant a crop, whatever it may be for the year. For a student, this is the start of new courses, grades, and information that they begin "growing" in their brain. Often with the planting of this crop, or soon before, you will spread some sort of fertilizer, which in some cases would be manure. As a student, the manure is my realization of, "Oh shoot, we're going back to school." It also works as a kick start into the new year, waking you up to the sad realization of, "Okay, it's time to learn in a classroom again..." Throughout the growing season (school year), we come across obstacles like weed pressure, insect infestations, and either drought or too much water. These are easily comparable to the student as those natural roadblocks they face every day. My introductory calculus course is giving me a run for my money, and thanks to it, I'm not bankrupt, but I'm in the lower middle class at best (if you're picking up what I'm putting down). I'm working hard. In a field we look for a tool or a chemical, or a solution to work around these obstacles (minus drought or too much water). This includes tutoring, supplemental instruction, office hours, and all the other fun tools schools offer now. In the case of the drought or drowning out of a crop, there is usually some degree of crop insurance to help cover us, just like how in college I have the opportunity to take a class again if I need to. You only get three tries! Three bad years in a row and maybe you should plant something else, or consider a different class.

Harvest time comes around finally! (This is more relative to having two immediate back-to-back growing seasons, then winter, but keep following my long, drawn out analogy.) Harvest takes a lot of equipment preparation, long hours, lots of fuel, and a ton of storage. What is this to a college student? Sounds like finals to me! We have to prepare our equipment, the brain, put in many weeks of studying, late nights, early mornings, and lots of coffee. Harvest time on the farm means you have to store the crop somewhere, so you better hope your brain's hard drive is ready for everything. If you've been doing it all right, it should be prepared for this, and be seeing this information again, just as a corn bin sees corn year after year. After harvest time, we shut the equipment down, clean everything up, and have to plant our cover crop, haul manure again, and spread lime. This is like the end of finals week when you're worn out and want to quit but you know that success depends on riding out the full wake of the season. Once everything has been spread, drilled, and your computer, coffee maker, and brain have a few minutes to relax, we prepare for winter, (figuratively representing the student's summer). This is the perfect time to update equipment, make repairs, order next year's seed and fertilizer, and haul grain. Again, a perfect time to compare summer purchasing of new books, maybe a new computer, getting some sleep, and hauling grain refers to using what you worked for (getting a job that allows you to use what you've been learning).

In a few months, we start all over. I'll bet none of you ever thought of such an intricate, odd analogy. I spent some time working on a term paper yesterday, looking at corn prices over and over and over, and I started thinking about our cycles, and that helped develop this. Thanks Dr. G. I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this.

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About Me

My name is Samuel, and I'm an aspiring first generation farmer. I currently attend Purdue University studying agricultural economics with a farm management concentration. I work on my fiancee's family's multi-generation farm raising corn, soybeans, cereal rye, and farrow to finish hogs. My passion for sharing the truth and beauty of modern agriculture has driven me to write this blog. I want to serve as a resource for anyone who questions food production, as well as discuss other fun and exciting parts of my life as well! Read along for a view of life through the eyes of one future farmer!